An authentic artist mortgages his time, his money, his unique perspective and his privacy to make an offering for the general brotherhood of man. But the tragedy of art is that so often its gifts are consumed without a true showing of gratitude or reciprocation from society. The artist is therefore left marginalized, impoverished and full of doubt as to the value of his creations, while those who have benefited from his exquisite labor trudge clumsily towards their next victim. Even worse still, his work may fail to find any audience at all.

If you’ve ever experienced unrequited love, then you know how the artist feels beneath this most painful brand of heartbreak; it is perhaps what has driven so many of our brightest luminaries to extinguish their own flames prematurely. And yet despite this suffering, most artists march forth in pursuit of the truth, as they must, for without their conviction, it would not exist.

With that being said, here's a song from my friend, the artist, David Ramirez:

Hey Ronnie,
I commented on one of your posts almost 3 years ago. I was 14, just a little baby. I am 17 now, turning 18 in the summer, and so much has changed. I have been in recovery for about 2 1/2 years. I have been struggling with cutting since I was 14, I’ve had an eating disorder since I was 8, and I’ve tried to kill myself more times than I’d like to admit. But I can honestly say that I’m starting to find hope. I’m realizing that there’s a lot more to life than I thought there was and I’m finding more and more things to live for everyday. I have a beautiful girlfriend, I am being my authentic self (no matter what my parents say), I am graduating high school from the program that I’m currently in, in december, and this whole time music has been my constant. I don’t know what I would have done through this time in my life with out music. Being able to sing and play piano and guitar and write songs has just inspired me to never give up. It calms me, it balances me. Your song “birds in a storm” describes the place of hopelessness and loneliness and just everything that I was going through, and that I still battle with today. I don’t really know where I’m going with all of this, but I guess I just wanted to share my story. And say thank you for inspiring me to fight, to recover and to keep music close to my heart at all times.